Gridiron Gaels fall to powerful Elizabeth foe

Roxbury High School's football team had just pulled to within a
touchdown of powerful Elizabeth in their Section 2, Group 4 state
playoff game at Elizabeth, when the host club scored three quick
touchdowns.

The 18 point second-quarter was enough to win the game as
Elizabeth (9-1) steamrolled its way to the sectional final with a
punishing 32-7 victory over Roxbury (7-3).

That was the last touchdown of the day as neither team scored in
the second half.

"They are a very big, very physical and very fast team," said
Roxbury assistant coach Marty Volz the day after the game. "We
needed to play a lot better than we did in order to stay with them
… and we didn't."

Elizabeth had taken a 14-0 first-period lead on two TD passes,
the first a traditional pass from quarterback Qasim Sessoms to Todd
Scott for 11 yards and the second a halfback option pass from
Ibrahim Halsey to Gabriel Gonzalez for 36 yards.

The first TD was set up when a Roxbury fourth-down pass out of
punt formation was knocked down by the wind and fluttered well
short of the wide-open intended receiver.

Roxbury couldn't move the ball again on its second possession
and Elizabeth made it 14-0 on a 7-play, 49-yard march with halfback
Halsey took the pitch from quarterback Sessoms and then pulled up
and passed to Gonzalez, who was wide open in the end
zone.

Roxbury got its only TD of the game early in the second quarter
when John Lloyd banged over the goal line from the one yard
line.

But the rest of the period belonged to Elizabeth as Halsey
caught a 62-yard pass from Sessoms only three plays after Roxbury's
score and Ismail Abdunafi scored on runs of four and three yards to
give Elizabeth a 32- 7 halftime lead.

Comebacks

"Here we thought we were coming back when Lloyd scored and they
come back and score three plays later, " Volz said. "They ran a
crossing pattern and their guy was wide open and he just took it to
the end zone."

The second TD was set up when Roxbury fumbled on its own 20,
allowing Elizabeth to pound away on the ground before Abdunafi
scored on a short run. The third TD was a longer drive that was
kept alive when Halsey connected on another halfback -option
pass.

"We had that play defended this time with our defender in front
of their receiver ready to make the reception," Volz said. "But
somehow, their kid was able to come back and get in front of our
guy and come down with the ball."

That gave Elizabeth life on the Roxbury 23 and, a handful of
plays later, Abdunafi scored again with 50 seconds left to play in
the first half.

"They didn't make too many mistakes and, when they did, we
couldn't take advantage of them. We played better defense in the
second half, stopping them on their first series, but their punt
was downed on our one-yard line, giving us bad field
position."

"We put together a 20-play drive but got to only their 40 before
we had to punt. Then, we threw a couple of interceptions later on
when we got back the ball and the game was just about
over."

Roxbury's walking wounded list was longer than its list of point
producers in the game. Joe Colucci caught a helmet under the chin
and "was in la-la land on the sidelines for a few minutes,"
according to Volz.

Matt Solis came out with a sprained ankle; James Matthews missed
some time due to a leg pull; and Lloyd had to come out with a
slight shoulder injury.

Returns Expected

All should be back in time for Friday's game with arch-rival
Morristown.

The game will be played at Roxbury with a 7 p.m.
kickoff.

Lloyd was held to 48 yards on 11 carries and junior running back
Sean Szarka was held to 37 yards in 17 carries, three times being
stopped for negative yardage.

"They had two inside linebackers who had Division I stamped all
over them," Volz said. "They were big, quick and strong and seemed
to be all over the place making tackles."

"Their line on both sides of the ball was huge but even those
big guys could move. And their secondary was quick - very quick.
Our kids didn't give up, though, I'll give them that," added
Volz.

"They were in there fighting all the way, the way they have been
fighting all season."

Roxbury has one more fight left in it as it plays host to arch-
rival Morristown (6-3), a game that has gone Morristown's way the
last two years in stirring hard-fought victories.

Last year, Morristown had to come from behind to score its
victory at Roxbury. This year, the Gaels don't even want Morristown
to smell a lead. Just the way Elizabeth did to them last
Saturday.

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